Happy 20th Anniversary to Sufjan Stevens’ third studio album Michigan, originally released July 1, 2003.
In 2003, composer, singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Sufjan Stevens began what many thought would be a multi-year project, spanning decades and albums. Stevens promised 50 albums for all 50 United States, and to kick off the effort he pointed the spotlight at his home state of Michigan. While it’s since been revealed this was a bit of a joke on Stevens’ part (the only other state to receive an album was Illinois in 2005), Michigan is a lasting, career-defining collage, offering a snapshot of a middle America through Stevens’ plaintive eyes.
Twenty years later, when there is a burgeoning monoculture of extremist Christianity, Michigan is an important representation of a gentler kind of modern spirituality, inward facing and philosophical. In the years following Creed and other Christian nü-metal acts, Stevens’ sprawling landscapes filled with classical and folk instruments rarely seen on the Top 40 charts (French horns, glockenspiels) paint a very different picture of faith. A long-time member of Danielson, an unabashedly Christian indie band, Stevens draws language and allusions from his faith on "All Good Naysayers, Speak Up! Or Forever Hold Your Peace!" and "Oh God, Where Are You Now? (In Pickerel Lake? Pigeon? Marquette? Mackinaw?)," unflinching in his old-fashionedness.
In Michigan, Stevens paints realistic portraits of the American working class, romantic but not idealized or nostalgic (like many of today’s contemporary country music). In “The Upper Peninsula,” a spare story illustrates an isolated life, tethered to humanity by commercialism: “I live in America with a pair of Payless shoes / The Upper Peninsula and the television news / I’ve seen my wife at the K-Mart / In strange ideas we live apart.” Between the spare ballads, Stevens scatters baroque instrumentals. The glittering chimes of “Alanson, Crooked River,” and the Philip Glass-like arpeggios on “Tahquamenon Falls” are breaths of fresh air, short-form stories interspersed by the instrumentals, giving the album a mix-tape feel.
In Michigan, Stevens’ storytelling is at its best when he ruminates on Rust Belt life. His depictions of industrious Michiganders, working men defeated by local governments and saved by the grace of God, have a charming Rockwellian quality. Stevens is also interested in the tension between natural beauty and manmade horrors of industry. The somber opening track, “Flint (For the Unemployed and Underpaid)" feels eerily prescient, telling the story of a man hopeless and broke, years before the city’s catastrophic water-shortage was national news.
Listen to the Album:
At times, Michigan feels like a tone poem, anchored by Stevens’ memories. “Romulus” is a devastating reflection on a youth spent missing his mother. The childlike thoughts, hoping for her car to break down so she would never leave, and the poignant ache of his shame are almost unbearable in their sadness. The final track on the album, “Vito’s Ordination Song” is a gorgeous, sprawling love song. The lyrics are tender parting thoughts, tying together the underlying theme of love, but in its most simple form, an embrace.
Despite being part of the early aughts Brooklyn scene with punk roots influencing their new version of folk, like The National (frequent Stevens collaborators) and Grizzly Bear, Stevens fully eschewed a traditional pop formula for Michigan. Several tracks are well over five minutes, meandering throughout, extending a final lyric for minutes, and often ending in a cacophony of riffs and solos. The lengthy songs are epic in the traditional sense, but instead of Greek kings, the humble folks of Ypsilanti and Marquette are the heroes.
Overall, Michigan serves as a formal introduction to Sufjan Stevens’ enduring artistry. Inspiring a genre of Midwestern folk that flourished in the later aughts and early teens, artists like Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver carried the torch of pop Americana. And while Stevens spent the years following Michigan, and his next album Seven Swans (2004),creating a more contemporary sound, he would return to the special brand of earthy sadness found throughout Michigan, with Carrie & Lowell (2015). The moving songwriting coupled with stunning multi-instrumentalist talent that would be hallmarks of Stevens’ art are in full display on this lush and timeless album.
Listen: